Filling in Monday night for boss Oliver Darcy at the far-left newsletter site Status, Jon Passantino threw a pity party for his friends at MSNBC by revealing the mockery and hilarity over its impending name change to MS-NOW has left them feeling as blue as their partisan stripes.
Passantino gave away the game in the headline and subhead: “Plucking MSNBC’s Feathers; After nearly 30 years, MSNBC is dropping its name to become MS NOW—a rebrand that sparked tension with NBCU and weeks of behind-the-scenes debate.”
He explained that the real, behind-the-scenes reactions to the name change was far different from the forced excitement on Monday’s Morning Joe, explaining “the decision to change MSNBC’s name after nearly 30 years on the air was not initially met with the same excitement” and most notably because it was seen as a broken promise by executives.
“Mark Lazarus, the chief executive of the new spinco Versant, initially reassured nervous MSNBC staffers earlier this year that the network would be able to keep its name even as it separated from the NBC mothership,” Passantino explained, adding it occurred at some point to NBCUniversal suits that severing MSNBC from NBC News would make the two competitors after decades as two networks sharing journalists and behind-the-camera personnel.
“That realization prompted Comcast-owned NBCUniversal executives to push back on MSNBC retaining its long-held name,” the Status editor continued.
While life can continue for CNBC (sans the peacock logo since their acronym is actually Consumer News and Business Channel), MSNBC’s forced change “sparked significant tension with Lazarus, a person familiar with the matter told Status” with “Rachel Maddow and others had also quietly pushed to keep the network’s name[.]”
Passantino had more details from a company memo in which network president Rebecca Kutler admitted becoming MS-NOW “will be met with questions, and I want to acknowledge that for many of you who have spent years or decades here, it is hard to imagine the network by any other name” and they tried their best following “significant debate.”
One is supposed to presume more mockery will ensue once MS-NOW enacts a marketing push:
Notably, the logo replaces the iconic peacock emblem with a red-striped flag—a move meant to reclaim the American flag as both a patriotic symbol and nod to the network’s progressive perspective. In the coming months, MSNBC will be rolling out the new brand identity with a comprehensive marketing push both on the network’s air and off, including billboards, direct marketing, and a social media campaign.
